As the season begins, Andre Villas-Boas has set his sights firmly on regaining the title from Manchester United, although he's also aiming for success in Europe.

'I will not be satisfied if I don't win the Premier League, that's it,' the Chelsea manager says unambiguously. 'And if I win all four trophies, then I will retire,' he jokes.

'In any club, the domestic title is the main objective. The Champions League has seen a pattern of confidence for Manchester United and Barcelona in the last five years but Chelsea is in there with the final four. 

'We are up to that level of threatening for the [Champions League] final and for the trophy. In the end it all goes back to the draw, to the away game, to the home game, who you draw in the group stage and the knockout phases. It's all very unpredictable.'

Challenging for more than one major trophy is always a big ask, and Villas-Boas understands why Chelsea fell short last campaign.

'You can recall the amount of injuries this squad had. It's unfair for me to criticise Carlo [Ancelotti] and criticise what happened last season. 

'He's a very successful manager who had a very successful first year at Chelsea, which you can only dream of emulating. But hopefully we can be up to what Carlo did in his first year.

'But what happened last year is that the team had a couple of big injuries which affected the whole squad and Chelsea had problems in terms of results, there's no running away from that. 

'Chelsea managed to shorten the big gap with Manchester United. Chelsea really had a big possibility of winning back-to-back titles when they went to Manchester in April. It could have been a very different story, and the man speaking as Chelsea manager today could be different. But now we will focus again on winning back as many titles as possible.

'The season is long and disappointments will come, that's how you challenge players. They have to live up to the standards.

One man who missed a four months of the last campaign through injury was midfield maestro Frank Lampard, and although Villas-Boas believes his squad is not as strong as he'd like in that area, he believes adaptability is there.

'We are struggling with numbers in midfield but we have a lot of versatility in the team. You have seen pure wingers, like [Florent] Malouda, playing in the number 8 position, and Yossi [Benayoun] also in that 8 position and the 10 position, and they have been very successful.

'It gives us a bit more flexibility and that's why we are happy with the squad going into the Stoke game. All of them have been performing at a very high level.

'I like to see fitness as only one characteristic of the game.

'I like to involve other characteristics, although it can be difficult because of the intensity of the British game. Hopefully you can reach a balance between pressing high and sometimes you have to be low and maybe do it aggressively in the next action.

'In my mind, our squad offers this kind of flexibility for us. If we can do it all season? That's a question we need to face on a weekly basis.'

Chelseafc.com